GDC: 'Plot is Highly Overrated' in Games, Says Devs

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"Players don’t remember plot."

By Colin Moriarty

Exit Theatre Mode

Today at GDC, Riot Games’ Narrative Lead Tom Abernathy and Microsoft Game Studios’ Design Lead Richard Rouse III gave a fascinating 25 minute-long speech entitled “Death to the Three Act-Structure.” Within that presentation, the two industry veterans talked a great deal about game narrative, touching on some of the finest examples in recent memory, from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Portal to The Last of Us and Fallout 3.

But they also talked about what extensive research has shown: that plot itself doesn’t resonate with a majority of players. Characters, on the other hand, do.

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…players really hardly remember the plots of the games that they play.

They point to research conducted by Microsoft, indicating “that players really hardly remember the plots of the games that they play. When they were asked, ‘tell me the plot of your favorite movie,’ they did it at length, and very accurately. When they were asked, ‘tell me the plot of your favorite TV show,’ they did it at length, and very accurately. ‘Tell me the plot of your favorite game.’ Not so much at length, not so accurate.”

The data does indicate, however, that characters are different: “game characters were consistently remembered, but not necessarily for their role in the plot,” the men said, citing Microsoft’s research.

Exit Theatre Mode

Gameplay events were also remembered as they were tied to plot, according to the data. That’s because, as the pair explained, gamers are using their mind on gameplay, on the action at hand. They can’t expend the mental bandwidth to follow complex plots and stories when they’re always having to do something else. In this way, gaming is unlike film, television, and books. Players are more than mere observers.

Rouse went back to the numbers. “Statistically, most players don’t finish games. We’ve all seen numbers that say something like a third, on average.” (You can read more about this portion of their presentation here.)

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Statistically, most players don’t finish games.

“So the question is,” he later continued, “how much does the third act pay off, that you’re putting so much work into, as you’re trying to structure your plot, intricately. How much does that matter, when the fact is that a majority of your players are never even going to see it?”

The conclusion the two men come to is that “in games, plot is highly overrated… Players don’t remember plot. What they do remember, is they remember characters.” Naturally, they also care about their own “experience” playing the game. Thus, these two veterans of the gaming industry recommend that developers and designers focus on the things that are most important – characters, experience – and less on the intricacies of storytelling.